Many learning opportunities naturally occur when children are allowed to correct their own mistakes, find their own answers, and interact on their own terms with their peers. Special educators have a long history of relying primarily on teacher-directed or adult-directed approaches to meet individual program requirements. Opportunities for children with disabilities to learn from other children are likely to be missed if there is a heavy or exclusive reliance on the constant presence of an adult and ongoing adult direction. Two important components of this strategy follow.
• Provide assistance without directly participating in children's interactions
  It is important to be aware of opportunities to withdraw from children's interactions. Once children have learned to interact comfortably with their peers who experience severe disabilities and to interpret their communication, you should actively seek and arrange opportunities for child to child interactions to occur. Be careful to assist the child only in the ways in which he or she truly needs assistance. This may involve positioning the child, setting up the materials, and providing the peers with strategies to sustain an activity. While you may need to remain near the child in order to support his or her position or occasionally offer assistance with an activity, it is important to remain as unobtrusive as possible.

• Step back and fade physically away from the child's interactions at appropriate times
  Knowing when to actually step back and fade completely from children's activities is critical. As just noted, these opportunities increase as children become more comfortable and skilled in interacting with a friend who experiences a severe disability. Key factors include the presence of typically developing peers who: (a) directly address their classmate and know how to interpret his or her nonverbal communication; (b) know how to assist their classmate in meaningfully participating in activities; (c) respect their classmate's right to be involved in decision making about ongoing activities; and (d) enjoy spending time with their friend.

Thompson, B., Wickham, D., Wegner, J., Ault, M. M., Shanks, P., & Reinertson, B. The process of communication: Facilitating interactions with young children with severe disabilities in mainstream early childhood education programs. (1993). Lawrence, KS: Learner Managed Designs.